Fox's Life
by winged dragon of gaia
Summary: An AU story about what could have happened if Orochimaru had succeded in destroying the the village hidden in the leaves


Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto if I did then I would be rich and Naruto would use the Fox more often.

Lightning flashed as a cloaked figure huddles against a tree to try and avoid the coming storm. Thunder followed shortly, beginning the dance of light and sound. The figure sighs and pulls his cloak tighter. 'another day...another storm.' the figure thought as it wrapped its cloak tighter.

A loud scream carried by the wind reaches the figures ears. It sighed then stood. 'another storm...another innocent's blood shed.' it thought as it stared into the distance toward the scream. It sighed then vanished, the only trace that anyone was there at all was the bent grass at the base of the tree. Another bolt of lightning arcs through the sky, this one striking the tree causing it to burst into flames. In a few hours it would burn away to ash, covering any sign that any one was there.

In a valley a few miles away a typical scene was playing forth, bandits were raiding a small village. People were running about trying to avoid the weapons of the bandits, which were being used as they were supposed to, blood and limbs were flying through the air to land on the ground with a sickening thud. Women cried as children were cut down in front of their mothers, men yelled as they were disemboweled. In this world that was the usual day to day happenings. "make sure you don't hurt the women!" a man appearing to be 6'3 and wearing a cloak made of what appeared to be a bear skin yelled as he walked through the carnage. "the Baron will pay a good price for them!"

a elderly man knelled in front of the man. "please sir! Have mercy on the children! They've done nothing to warrant this!" the elderly man said as he placed his forehead into the now blood soaked dirt.

The apparent bandit leader removed his hood to reveal a face with red hair and was covered in scars, the most prominent, a scar running across the bridge of his eyes seemingly connecting them. "mercy...is for those who earn it...and I say." he smiled as he reached into his cloak and pulled a katanna. "that nothing I have seen here warrants it." he said as he brought it up to decapitated the man, who was crying into the ground. The leader quickly brought his katanna down but stopped before beheading the man. "however I am a fair man." he said as he stood and turned to face his group.

The elderly man sighed then rose to his feet, quickly the leader spun and removed the man's head from his body, causing the bandits to laugh. "did I say you could stand?" the leader said as he glared down at the body spurting blood into the air.

"killing elderly people and children now are we Vincent?" a voice that seemed to come from everywhere said. The leader spun in a circle to try and find the source of the voice.

"who's there!" the leader now named Vincent yelled as he spun again.

"you know me." a scream erupted from Vincent's right he turned to see one of his men fall to the ground cut horizontally in half. "what happened to the warrior I used to know?" another scream from Vincent's right, this time a man's brains erupted from his skull to splatter onto his comrade behind him, who yelled and fell to the ground.

"if I know you, then why not show yourself!" Vincent yelled as he kept turning.

"i could." the voice said again as another man fell face first to the ground with blood flowing out his back. "but, I prefer to slowly kill you. Make you think your going insane." the voice then started to laugh as the men pulled their weapons and started to panic.

"only a coward fights from the shadows!" Vincent yells into the air as another man falls.

The voice stops laughing. "coward?" it says with a deadly tone to it. "you calling me a coward! Hah! That's rich! I remember when you slinked through the shadows like a snake!"

Vincent's face turned to one of shock. "who..." he swallowed hard. "who...are you!?" another man fell, this time encompassed in flames, he fellows tried to put out the flame to no avail.

"i also remember when you went by another name." the voice said as it materialized behind Vincent. "and you looked different."

Vincent quickly spun to face the figure. "WHO ARE YOU!" Vincent yelled as he pointed his sword at the black cloaked figure that appeared out of nowhere.

The figure sighed then shook its head. "a ninja is always aware of his surroundings...did you forget that?" it said with a hint of sorrow in its voice. Vincent's eyes widened then he quickly looked around, finding everything as it was. "look again." the figure said with greater sorrow in its voice. Again Vincent quickly scanned the area finding nothing, until his eyes landed on the carcass of the dead elderly man, Vincent's eyes widened as he spied a symbol he hadn't seen earlier.

"i...no...u..."he stuttered as he stared at the symbol...the kanji for Fox was emblazoned on the back of the mans shirt. "Naruto." the words were barely off his lips when the world exploded in to a ball of red energy.

When the energy clear all that was left of the village was a small crater, and in that crater stood the cloaked figure. "good bye...Sai." again the figure disappeared, leaving no trace.


End file.
